Public Budgeting
The budget and accounting act was eventuated in the 1921 (Rubin, 2015).
Budgeting was invented by the government in the early 1900s (Rubin, 2015).
The budget reform was instituted in 1974.
Strategic planning: involves identification of organization objectives, resources available to achieve these objectives and development of policies that will be used to govern the use resources (Rubin, 2015).
Management Control: involves managers applying process that will make certain that resources are acquired and used effectively and efficiently (Rubin, 2015)
Operational Control: involves ensuring that certain specific tasks are carried out efficiently and effectively (Rubin, 2015)
Chapter 11 Summation
In this article, the writer seeks to offer more details and information concerning federal agency budget officers. According to the author, aspects of their roles and responsibilities have been neglected to the point where individuals think that they no longer need the services of these officers. More importantly, over the years, the different changes in legislation have really influenced how agency budget officers work. In general, information available on the work of federal agency budget officers is limited and as such this has contributed to a lack of concern regarding the role of the budget officers. Aspects of the roles of the budget officers may not be documented but have come to be accepted and passed down traditionally to include several aspects. For instance, the budget officer is required to be involved in the formulation and preparation of the budget. Secondly, the budget officer is required to prepare sufficient justifications relating to the budget request and is required to be the main resource person during the budget-making process. This may entail being available for both executive and legislature process of the budget process.
Traditional Aspect of Budget Officers
One of the major roles played by the budget officer initially involved close participation in conjunction with political appointees on the preparation and development of strategies that can be used to achieve objectives through application of logic and providing technical backing and credibility as the budget progresses through the congressional evaluation stage. Additionally, the budget officer also ensured that any programs related to the budget were based on the law and according to the direction of the agency head. At the time, the agency head was not a political appointee but rather a true supervisor. As such, policy communication and directives relating to the budget were done efficiently.
Functioning as an advisor to the congressional committee, the budget officer ensured that members became aware of how to implement strategies and ensure that these strategies conformed to the agency’s requirements. Such a role enhanced the credibility of the agency budget staff. Consequently, by offering such technical backup and assistance, future problems would be avoided for both the congressional committee and the agency. The position of the budget officer faced many challenges especially during changes in administration. As a budget officer, the ability to influence major program policies and execution of programs was high. This attracted attention from the political aspect to have control in order to influence major changes in the country. A requirement to ensure the officer functions impartially was that the officer needed to be neutral in terms of career aspects to be able to offer support and advice to policy makers. Political appointees were the major threats and are still the major threats to the function of the federal agency budget officer. Only the congressional appropriations committee has made efforts to try and protect the federal agency budget officer as they appreciate the value and role these officers do to the service of the country. The introduction of the political appointees has resulted in reducing the ability of the budget officer to influence policy processes and provide advice and support to different major programs. Furthermore, the role of the budget officer is still being constrained by proposals to reduce the size of the budget office.
Budget reforms and their influence on the role of Budget officers
The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 is a major aspect of budget reforms. The Act developed the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to aid in evaluating the entire budget in totality rather than in appropriations. However, the CBO members may in some cases meet with agency budget staff to deliberate on some of the assumptions that have been applied in the budget making process. There is increased strict budget ceilings, which require that assumptions be made based on both technical and political basis. As such, consultation between agency budget staff and CBO is necessary.
Another act that has influenced the work of budget officers positively is the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990. Based on this act, there has been a need to ensure that future budgets do not exceed certain set ceilings. As such, additional funding is thus achieved by offsetting funds on a different legislation. This has increased the work done by the budget officers in that they have to scrutinize the budget more keenly to ensure the set limits are not exceeded. Additionally, the budget officers have to select among the choices or programs that need to be implemented immediately or after some time to ensure that the limits are not exceeded. The budget officer’s presence is required to offer explanations on the various implications of the different spend out rates, the effect of alternative programs with regards to the total ceilings set and how savings can be achieved.
The reforms have added more work for the budget officers. There is a likelihood that more reforms may continue to have the same effect of adding more responsibilities on budget officers. Budget officers are still relevant, and more attention needs to be paid to them to enhance their ability to perform their duties.
Reference
Rubin, I. S. (2015). Public Budgeting: Policy, Process, and Politics. New York: Routledge.
